Kids holiday activities: make video letters

Posted by on December 24, 2011| Featured

It’s the holiday season, school is out, and your kids are going to start complaining they have nothing to do. If you’re at your wit’s end, and are contemplating playing ’52 Pick-Up to get them out of your hair, why not have them make video letters.

Like any kids’ activity, this activity has to be structured:

Have the kids figure out who they’re going to send a letter to, and what they’re going to say

To totally nerd out, have the kids plan a series of different shots that can be thrown into muvee to create an interesting narrative (make sure the Christmas tree and stockings are in there someplace, as well as any presents sent from relatives living far away)

Go over the rules of how to safely operate a the basic controls on a videocamera

Once your children are all set up with scripts and shot-lists, set them loose with the videocamera, but be sure to keep an eye on them to prevent “accidents”.

When they’re happy with what they’ve captured, use muvee’s Scenes,Transitions, Captions and other tools to create a unique video that you can upload to Facebook or YouTube to share with your friends and relatives.

If done right, this can become quite a fun project that takes over an afternoon, or an entire weekend. It’s also a good way to teach your children to think creatively and independently, and help them become more engaged with relatives.

Nevin Thompson’s advice for all parenting problems: teach ’em how to make video letters.